The holidays are quickly approaching, and I am excited!  I love Christmas but let’s face it, it can be stressful and a lot of work! What if you could remove some of that stress for yourself and provide a healthy holiday season to your loved ones?  It is especially important for us to nourish ourselves well during this time.  I realized the date and in a panic I said to my husband, “Oh my gosh, it’s almost time to put up the Christmas tree!”.  We just finally got all of the Halloween decorations put away.  I know, it’s shameful!  I am not one to start decorating for Christmas until it is officially December.  I just can’t do it.  There isn’t even snow on the ground yet!  In fact, I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping yet.  What can I say?  Sometimes I procrastinate.  Not because I’m lazy and don’t want to do it.  It’s just that I’ve got so much else going on.  There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Tomorrow, my family and I will be traveling to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.  What for you ask?  My most favorite event of the year  - Wise Traditions, The Weston A. Price Foundations 11th Annual Conference.   I am beyond excited!  In fact, excited is an UNDERSTATEMENT!  So, with passports in hand, we are packing up the kids and driving 9 (or so) hours.  God bless my patient family for tolerating my desires.  I was lucky enough to attend the event when it was held in San Francisco (Burlingame), California, 2 years ago.  It was my first time attending a conference.  I had to miss the conference last year in Chicago because the little one, was just too little to be without me all day for 4 days straight.  I was so disappointed to miss it.  But, what’s a mother to do?  I had a much more important job that year.  But, this year, that little one is old enough to have 4 fun-filled days with her dad, brother and sister while I am in seminars, eating the most fabulous food on earth, and mingling with the best real foodies! What are they going to do for 4 days in PA without me in November?

Photo courtesy of Girl Interrupted Eating on Flickr.

Mmmmm, liver!  Not quite what most people call delicious.  Just the look of it makes people quiver in disgust.  Organ meats, or offal, is what peasants would eat because they couldn’t afford the more expensive cuts of muscle meats.  Little did they know how lucky they were.  I bet their children had beautifully straight teeth! Liver, and other organ meats are tremendously high in nutrients, especially if it comes from grass-fed or pastured animals.  It is a super food.  Did you know that a lion, when it kills its prey, will eat the liver first? Organ meats were highly prized by traditional peoples all over the world.  Dr. Price noted that among African tribes, “The liver is so scared that it may not be touched by human hands.”  Many native cultures feed liver to their babies as a first food.  Wise, very wise indeed.